Computers have become extremely popular in many households today, especially for connecting onto the Internet. The most popular way to connect a computer onto the Internet is through a computer modem over a telephone line. However, most households still have only one telephone line and must share this telephone line with traditional voice calls and calls to connect onto the Internet or for sending and receiving facsimiles through the computer or via a dedicated facsimile machine.
When a house has only one telephone line, and someone is either on-line on the Internet or is sending or receiving a facsimile, the telephone line is inoperative for telephone calls. No calls may be made over the telephone line until the existing connection is terminated and another connection is established. However, disconnecting the existing facsimile or computer connection in order to make a 911 -emergency call can consume valuable time, especially if the computer user is experiencing an immediate medical or other emergency, or has a special medical condition requiring immediate response by emergency services personnel. Additionally, if the telephone is not physically located in the same room as the computer terminal, a person who is experiencing an emergency may not have sufficient time or ability to move from the computer terminal to the telephone area.
Furthermore, the person giving assistance to the computer user may not know how to exit the Internet or fax function to disconnect the computer so that an emergency call may be made. The ability to easily make an emergency call from the computer, without having to leave the computer area, would be advantageous to computer users, particularly those with special medical conditions. The ability to easily make an emergency call from the computer itself while working on the computer could save lives by enabling emergency calls to go out immediately, thereby reducing the time of response by emergency services personnel. This longstanding problem needs to be addressed.
No teachings or disclosures of the prior art have suggested this type of a solution, although a brief resume of the other U.S. patents related to this problem shows that it is prominent, and requires immediate attention.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,392,329, Automatic Call Distribution System with Emergency Recording System and Method, to Adams et al., issued Feb. 21, 1995, showed an automatic call distribution system for emergency recording. The Adams et al. system, however, would not interface with the Internet as does the present invention.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,845, Audio/Telephone Communication System for Verbally Handicapped, to Little, issued Mar. 13, 1990, showed the need for an emergency system--but similarly does not contemplate Internet/facsimile interplay or the problem of a limited supply of available telephone lines.
While U.S. Pat. No. 4,839,892, Concentrator System Capable of Completing Emergency Calls Under Congested Traffic, to Sasaki, issued Jun. 13, 1989, was directed towards congested communication systems, it was radio-based, unlike the teachings of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,067, Switch Actuated Communication Device, to Hauck, issued Nov. 10, 1987, showed the need for signal generation and integration, but the involved circuitry differs from the instant teachings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,828,292, Button Emergency Signal via Incorporated Transmitter, to Kokhan, issued Oct. 27, 1998, discloses a 3-button emergency signal device using a transmitter to transmit a unique transmission signal for receipt by a specific emergency facility upon the depression of a designated button. However, the device disclosed in the Kokhan reference requires each of the emergency facilities to have a receiver to receive the transmission signals and does not utilize existing telecommunication media, such as the Internet or conventional telephone lines to transmit the emergency call. The device disclosed in the Kokhan reference is also not capable of transmitting other information associated with the emergency other than the call for the emergency assistance itself.
Clearly, there is a longstanding need for a novel, enhanced emergency call prioritizing and facilitating system not ameliorated by the teachings of the prior art.